Travel

In early June I met up with family in Florence for a more typical summer vacation. We tasted wines around Tuscany and toured the Uffizi Galleries and the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze. We went on to Venice to see the Doge's Palace in Piazza San Marco and take a gondola trip around the canals. The trip wrapped up in Rome where we visited the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, along with Roman ruins including the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and the Pantheon.

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About half a decade after the Assad regime recaptured most rebel strongholds in Idlib, I hired a guide to take me through Western Syria. We started in Damascus, where we visited mosques and souks, and went on to Aleppo and Palmyra, which were still heavily damaged from the war. I then flew to Iraq, where I explored Baghdad, Babylon, and the Shrines of Hussein and Ali in Kerbala and Najaf respectively. I went next to Mosul, which was still recovering from the ISIS occupation, and wound down from this difficult trip in Erbil and the Kurdish mountains.

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I spent ten days in Mexico with a few friends, between Mexico City and Oaxaca. We wandered through Centro, Roma, and Juarez, visited the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, and had incredible food and drink in Oaxaca City. I then flew to Havana and spent a night in Vinales, the mountainous countryside of Cuba, where I toured tobacco farms and coffee plantations. I ended my trip with a few days in Havana, taking in the art and music while getting to know my host and his friends.

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After finishing at my research position, I traveled Asia with a group of friends. We spent a week in Taiwan ducking in and out of cafes to finish work. In Thailand, we explored temples and beaches, went fishing, and ate lu, a raw blood soup. We visited the stunning Angkor Wat temple and explored Phnom Penh in Cambodia. We then spent over two weeks in Vietnam across Ho Chi Minh, Danang, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, and Mu Cang Chai in the northwest, where we rented motorbikes to traverse the rice paddies.

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The night my Ph.D. plans were finalized, I flew to Paris to visit my friend and then spent ten days with my dad while working in Tunisia. We explored the Tunis Medina, Carthage, and the Dougga ruins during the week. On the weekend we went down to Tozeur and rented a car to cross the Chott el Djerid saltpan where we ran out of gas and a flat tire had us temporarily stranded. We cooled off from our turbulent road trip in La Marsa by visiting Sidi Bou Said and the local beaches.

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After the New Year I took advantage of some Air Canada credits and worked remotely from a friend's in Maui. We ate marlin and ahi around Lahaina and visited beaches across West Maui. Over the weekend we went whale watching and took a road trip up to the Haleakala Crater. We visited the Ocean Organic Vodka Distillery for sunset and had a mixed plate dinner at one of Anthony Bourdain's old haunts in Wailuku.

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In the summer of 2022 I spent a month and a half traveling through Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. In Egypt I visited the Pyramids of Giza near Cairo, Abu Simbel on the Sudanese border, and took a cruise up the Nile. In Jordan I went to see a music festival in Jerash, spent two days exploring Petra, and a night camping in the Wadi Rum desert. I then caught up with old friends in Lebanon and Israel, who shared measured insights of the conflicting histories of their countries while taking me on a grand tour covering Baalbek to Batroun, Jerusalem to Eilat.

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With pandemic travel restrictions keeping me state-side in 2021, I left New Haven to couch surf for two-plus months with friends in New York and San Francisco. NY Dosas' special pondicherry dosa and the negronis at Dante were highlights from the east coast. In California we spent a few days hiking Yosemite, through the valley and up to Vernal Falls, sleeping in the back of our car on the last night. We went to Napa Valley for wine tastings, trying diverse offerings from Benziger, Robert Mondavi, and Kenzo Estate.

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In the summer before senior year, I lived in Johannesburg with my friend and his family. I travelled around the region, covering Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia. I caught up with an old friend in Gaberone, who organized an week-long camping safari in Kalahari Desert. In Mozambique we took a boat to a remote peninsula off the coast of Maputo where we stayed at a “bed and breakfast” of sorts. In Namibia I visited to Sossusvlei and rented a 4x4 to drive up the Skeleton Coast for a solo camping trip, soaking out four invigorating months. Spare tires were essential.

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From the beginning of May to the end of August 2018, I lived with my dad in Shanghai while interning at a French wine company. Having only ever spent short periods in Shanghai, these four months gave me time to properly explore the temples, markets, and art districts. I took a month off in July to visit family in Taiyuan and in Huangguang, with a detour to the historical capital of Xi'an accompanied by my grandparents. We finished the tour in Nanjing, where my parents went to college. Duck blood soup, the Terracota Army, and Shanghai's numerous speakeasies were highlights.

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